Waymo, the autonomous driving technology company under Alphabet, has temporarily halted its robotaxi services in the San Francisco Bay Area following a widespread power outage on Saturday afternoon.

A Waymo spokesperson stated, "Due to the extensive power outage, we have temporarily paused our ride-hailing services in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our team is working closely with city officials to restore operations as quickly as possible. We appreciate the public’s patience and will provide updates promptly."

Videos circulating on social media showed multiple Waymo autonomous vehicles stalled on roads across San Francisco during the outage. Matt Scofield, a local resident, reported seeing at least three Waymo vehicles immobilized around 9:45 PM on Saturday, with one stopped in the middle of Turk Avenue near Park Street.

According to Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), the outage began at 1:09 PM on Saturday, peaking two hours later and affecting approximately 130,000 customers. By Sunday morning, 21,000 customers remained without power, primarily in the Presidio, Richmond District, Golden Gate Park, and parts of downtown San Francisco. PG&E attributed the outage to a substation fire, which caused "severe and extensive" equipment damage, with no definitive timeline for full restoration.

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced on social media platform X at 9 PM that night that public transit services were gradually resuming, with police, firefighters, parking enforcement officers, and city service ambassadors deployed to affected areas. He also noted that "Waymo has paused its autonomous services."

Amid the chaos, Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted on X, stating, "Tesla’s autonomous ride-hailing services were unaffected by the San Francisco power outage." However, Tesla does not currently operate robotaxi services in San Francisco.

Tesla’s existing ride-hailing services in the area utilize vehicles equipped with its "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)" advanced driver-assistance system, which requires a human driver to remain in the driver’s seat at all times. Regulatory agencies such as the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the California Public Utilities Commission confirmed that Tesla has not obtained permits for fully driverless testing or commercial services in the state, meaning all autonomous testing and services must include a human safety operator ready to take control.

While Tesla aims to dominate the autonomous ride-hailing sector, it has yet to launch a commercial driverless service. Even in states where driverless operations are permitted, Tesla’s vehicles still require human safety drivers or operators.

Waymo, a leader in Western autonomous driving technology, is a key competitor to Tesla in this space, alongside other players like Baidu’s Apollo Go.

The disruption in San Francisco comes as robotaxi services expand in other major U.S. cities, despite lingering public skepticism. A survey by the American Automobile Association earlier this year found that about two-thirds of U.S. drivers remain fearful of autonomous vehicles.

Brian Reimer, a researcher at MIT’s Transportation Research Center and co-author of *Making AI Work*, noted that Waymo’s service suspension highlights cities’ unpreparedness for large-scale deployment of highly automated vehicles. "This incident exposes gaps in the technology’s design and development, proving it’s not as reliable as many believe," he said.

Reimer emphasized that power outages are entirely foreseeable. "For the foreseeable future, we need to integrate human oversight with AI to ensure reliable backup mechanisms for highly automated systems like robotaxis." He added that regulators must carefully consider limits on autonomous vehicle penetration, and developers should be held accountable for traffic disruptions caused by their vehicles, similar to human drivers’ responsibilities during outages.

Waymo has not disclosed a timeline for service restoration or confirmed whether any collisions involving its vehicles occurred during the outage.

As of now, Tesla and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have not responded to requests for comment.